


Prometheus Flare

by 56leon



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Burnish!Galo Thymos, Gen, Human!Lio Fotia, M/M, Novelization, Spoilers, also I hate writing novelizations and I'll take that to my grave, and frankly that's 25 too many, shoutout to the promare discord for enabling me, there's something about copypasting bits of canon that's just soooooo boring, this shit is 24 pages on google docs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 23:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20768690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/56leon/pseuds/56leon
Summary: In another world, a human boy leads a terrorist group. In another world, a Burnish man fights fires rather than starts them. Although their stories are different, their lives - and hearts - intertwine all the same.Or, a movie novelization in an AU where everything else is the same except for one important fact.





	Prometheus Flare

**Author's Note:**

> I'm skipping a good chunk of action sequences because they don't translate well into a novelization....AKA, I’m bad at writing fighting scenes. Hopefully the newly interpreted or completely new scenes help fill that void, though.
> 
> Also, THIS MOVIE HAS BEEN OUT FOR ONE (1) WEEK AND I'VE ALREADY SEEN IT THREE TIMES HOLY FUCK IT'S SO IMPORTANT TO ME.
> 
> **If you like my fics, feel free to talk to me on my writing-specific twitter [@kirilisms](https://www.twitter.com/kirilisms)!**

When Galo Thymos looks at the man- no, the _teen_ leading Mad Burnish, it doesn't seem real. Lio Fotia is a ghost in frozen chains, somebody who’s never meant to be caught but has somehow become corporeal at just the wrong time.

It's a victory, but it's not a victory that Galo deserves. Hell, it's a victory that doesn't even feel _achieved_; Fotia isn't in his Burnish gear when he's apprehended, had never once activated his armor _or _his ride during his fight with Galo, and the firefighter feels as though he's taken for a fool by the most wanted man on earth. His two lackeys - their names aren't mentioned once and he doesn't bother to ask - go down so easily that it's laughable, and to top it all off, Freeze Force swoops in to take the glory for the capture. And_ that's_ where it gets dicey.

Lio Fotia knows that humans are fickle. They don't have the threat of oppression hanging over their heads to force them to coexist, and so groups tend to band together and create friction. The same is said about Burning Rescue and Freeze Force, and Lio watches, unimpressed, as the blue haired man - _Galo Thymos, _he was so kindly asked to never forget the name - and the Freeze Force Commander - Vulcan something-or-other - square off.

"We have all jurisdiction over Burnish scum," Vulcan says at one point, snapping Lio out of his thoughts. "So it's up to us who's really in the right."

Galo bristles at that, that much is expected, but Lio can't help but start slightly at his next words. "You have jurisdiction over _Mad Burnish,_" he says, as if it makes any difference- and to Lio, it does. "But I'm the one who took him down!" It's a petty squabble for political points, but it's a squabble that Lio has no choice but to sit through. Still, it’s.....refreshing, if a little odd, to see a citizen of Promepolis make the distinction between innocent and terrorist, and even as he’s abused to hell and back by the Freeze Force commander who just refuses to play nice with Burning Rescue _or_ Mad Burnish, Lio can’t help but think that he couldn’t have chosen a more honorable sucker to help push his plans forward.

* * *

Galo knows. He’s known for a damn long time, that the guy making the best pizza in Promepolis is a Burnish, but it’s not like there’s been anything to _do_ about it.

Freeze Force, though, has other opinions. They punish him for- for what, for making a bomb-ass margherita? "This isn't right," he says before he can stop himself, stomping on a table and causing Vulcan's attention to turn to him once more. The second time in two days that he's been stared down by the Freeze Force commander, and it seems as though Galo really still hasn't learned his lesson. "He did nothing wrong! All he's doing is making a living!"

"You need to learn the law, kid. This Burnish is under arrest, and there's nothing a brat like you can do about it." Vulcan’s face-splitting grin isn’t enough to faze Galo, not after the incident involving the Mad Burnish leader - whose name he’s not forgotten but refuses to think about - but his next words are. “And if you wanna keep playing the hero, I'll have to assume you've been conspiring with the time bomb. _Anyone_ harboring a Burnish fugitive will be considered a terrorist as well.”

Aina’s suddenly standing on top of him, challenging Vulcan herself, but his focus is split between the Freeze Force commander’s words and trying not to turn his legs to jelly on the spot. Everything is a blur, brain freezing and rebooting several times to question the existence of Vulcan’s threat. Even as his favorite pizza joint is shut down and the nothing-but-friendly owner and pizza boy are taken away none too gently by Freeze Force scum, Galo is left swimming through a storm of unanswered questions and fears. Drowning, more like.

“Burnish food? _Disgusting,_” is the only thing that penetrates the sound of blood rushing in his ears, and he flinches away from the people who had been so welcoming mere moments prior; fortunately none of the civilians notice anything out of the ordinary, but Remi sees, and only makes things worse with his next words.

"Don't do anything rash, Galo. We can't change people's minds so quickly, even if we want to." 

_Anyone harboring a Burnish fugitive will be considered a terrorist as well. _The accusation doesn't strike true daggers into Galo until several minutes after they've been spoken, after Remi reminds him just how stubbornly fickle humanity can really be, and he steps away from the others, turning tail to mount his bike and run from the people who had once claimed him a hero. He shouldn't think about it, but that just makes him dwell on it all the more.

"Galo-!" Even Aina's shouts don't reach his ears, drowned out less by the sound of his motorbike's engine and more by the doubts buzzing in his mind. He has to go somewhere- somewhere quiet, somewhere cold, somewhere safe.

Somewhere where the threat of nonconformity can loom a little less ominously, even if for just a moment.

* * *

Within the cold halls of Freeze Force's Mad Burnish prison, the word _hero_ echoes ominously along with footsteps. The television screens above Lio's head display the man who had captured him, touting him as the savior that Freeze Force refuses to consider him. Of course, Lio holds the same sentiments, his eyes flickering up to look at _Galo Thymos_'s completely naive smile in contempt. He’d never forget that name or that face, the one who had unknowingly brought his plan into fruition under the guise of doing Promepolis a great honor, nor would he forget the one who so easily slipped words between the Burnish and the terrorists who support them.

Now, instead of chained up and bound like the fool they think he is, he's a lion in a lion's den, waiting for the perfect moment to _roar_. Meis and Gueira stand by his side silently, eyes facing forward even as they wait for a signal from their boss. Fortunately, the time for escape comes far sooner than he had expected, but it's still not a moment too soon. "Meis," he murmurs lowly, making sure both of his friends - never subordinates - are ready for what's to come. "Gueira." They both nod, and he takes it as a go-ahead; the plan for escape begins to run its course.

Locked inside their self-freezing cuffs, it should be impossible for any Burnish to heat them up enough to escape. But Lio isn't _any Burnish_, and the flames protecting him flicker to life _outside_ of the restraints, quickly engulfing the metal until it sparks into a glorious malfunction. The thud of metal against the ground alert the guards to his freedom, but they can do nothing as flames swirl around Lio and push themselves outwards, forcing them to take a step back. “Burnish don’t kill people,” he says in a reminder, and Meis and Gueira nod before running off to free the other Burnish.

And while the Freeze Force lackeys may think that they can get a jump on Lio while he’s alone, they’ve forgotten: with the flames at his side protecting him and Burnish tenacity coursing through his veins......he’s never alone.

* * *

Crunching footsteps are the only things that signal another person's presence as Galo stares out at an open, if frozen, lake. "I come here all the time, if you're wondering." He doesn't look at Aina as he speaks, but he knows it's her; nobody else is stubborn enough to follow him out into the middle of the forest like she is. "It helps me......cool off." There's an irony to his words that he knows she'll never catch.

She sits next to him as he speaks, eyes trained out on the ice in the distance. "Really, I thought you were going to go raid Freeze Force HQ or something." Oh, that might've been a thought for another day, but he knows he'd do it if provoked too much......and Vulcan really knows how to press his buttons. "It's a good thing you know how to calm yourself down, at least."

"I’m not _that_ stupid,” he says in retaliation, despite knowing the opposite to be true. He’s not-headed to a fault, and it’s a surprise he hasn’t done anything to get himself _undeniably_ locked up by somebody other than Vulcan himself.

Before Aina can say anything in response, however, a streak of light in the sky catches on the ice, and he spins around, looking up at the flames with Aina following suit shortly after. "Are those-"

"Burnish flames," Galo finishes her sentence in agreement; despite being so far away, he can still easily identify them. "Looks like they're landing somewhere in the forest." Aina opens her mouth - to tell him to not be so reckless, no doubt - but he cuts her off before she can say anything. "Go contact the team," he says immediately, already running towards his bike. "I'll go check it out."

"Galo-!" She shouts after him, but in true Thymos fashion, it's pointless; he's already gone.

* * *

Galo is in shock at what he sees when he travels into the cave that the Burnish fire had led him to.

They're Burnish, that much is obvious, but they look so weak and hungry and fragile, huddled around a single measly campfire when a single one of them should have enough power to set the entire forest ablaze. Seeing them in such a state makes him lower his gun and press a hand to his mouth. He knew it was bad, but this situation- living on scraps and living in caves- is this reality? _Their_ reality? Guilt punches at his stomach harder than any physical attack.

It's not the flood of emotions that do him in, though, nor is it the tears that threaten to leak from the corners of his eyes. It's not the fear, or the pain, or even the guilt wracking his body.

No, it's the pistol-whip to the head.

* * *

When Galo comes to, he's still dazed, but coherent enough to recognize the man sitting on a rock in front of him. He could never, not in a million years, forget Lio Fotia, no matter how much he pretends.

And oh, does he pretend, because he's trying not to act as shaken as he feels. "You.....you're that kid," he fumbles his way through the act, glaring at him half-heartedly. "I arrested you, I.....I watched them take you away."

Lio snorts at Galo's lukewarm reaction, staring down at him in contempt. "I'm not _that kid_, I'm Lio Fotia. You'd do best to remember that, _Galo Thymos._" Galo flinches, and Lio is frankly satisfied with the reaction as he looks back at the Burnish. "Now please be quiet, we're having a meal."

To both of their surprise, Galo does as he's told. Not because he's told to, but because he has nothing to say. The silence is deafening, but perhaps that's just the rush of blood in his ears as guilt eats away at him like the Burnish, with the voracity of a last meal. For all they know, for all he knows, it might just be.

A groan of pain breaks through the silence, and his head quickly turns to see a girl he hadn't noticed before, her entire body covered in ragged bandages. "Thyma," Lio says quickly, moving from his perch to kneel at her side. "What is her condition?"

One of the other Burnish, an older man, shakes his head sadly. "Without proper medical equipment.....I fear she won't make it." The crushing acceptance is visible in Lio's eyes immediately, a violent whiplash from the man who had apparently fought to the death to escape Freeze Force headquarters. It's as though he isn't even thinking of _trying, _and Galo can't let that happen. Not when a life - a Burnish, a _human_, life - is at stake.

Galo swallows thickly. "I-I can help her," he says weakly. "I'm part of a rescue squad, I've got emergency medical training. I can....."

"There's no point." Lio knows full well that no human can help a Burnish when they're too far gone. He _knows. _And so instead of freeing Galo and risking any of the ones left alive, he holds the Burnish girl's hands tight, hoping that the warmth can do anything to ease her burden as she releases it completely.

Lio has never felt more useless in his life, but there's nothing he can do but show her respect as the remnants of her body float far above, towards the cave ceiling until they drift back down around Lio and the other Burnish in silent pain.

Galo has never seen a Burnish die, but his entire body recoils in horror. His heart screams to look away, to honor the dead, but something else - something stronger - forces him to watch, to see what happens to Burnish, to see what would happen to-

Lio's voice begins to fill the void that his thoughts buzz around in. "This is what happens when _we Burnish_ die," he says softly. "From the day we're born, we belong to the flame." Even as he speaks, Lio stands up and his hands curl into fists, no longer holding a girl that doesn't exist. His words, despite truthful and full of pain, ring hollow in his own ears, regretful that he can't suffer a fate that others have to bear. "As long as our flame burns, we are eternal. But when it goes out......we, too, fade and return to the earth."

Galo can't help but stare in pity, in pain, in desperation. "Why can't you just......be human?" He knows exactly why. "I'm sure Governor Kray would help y-"

"Are you a fool?" Lio's words turn sharp at the mention of Kray, and his eyes even sharper as he stares at Galo. "Who do you think made us this way? Your so-called governor is the one using us, treating us like lab rats and dissecting us."

That's not the reply that Galo expects, and it causes him to react harshly, the thought of Kray doing something so reprehensible immediately making his rationale shut down. "He's not!" He yells louder than he meant to, but Lio still doesn't recoil. "Governor Kray would never-! You're lying!"

Lio's own voice, in contrast, is soft and angry. "How do you know?" Galo is silent, unable to form a concrete answer as Lio stares at him for several long moments before turning away. "Wallow in your ignorance all you want, but it won't change _our_ reality."

The words hit Galo hard, ringing with meaning that he knows Lio doesn't intentionally have but conveys regardless. He's completely silent from then on, and Lio only hesitates a moment longer before following the rest of his brethren out of the cave and towards their next hiding place.

* * *

By the time Aina has found him, both Thyma's ashes and whatever tears Galo has shed are long gone. There's nothing left but empty air for one, and an empty shell for another.

* * *

The next day comes too soon, yet not soon enough as Galo meets Kray right in front of his office. He's not there for celebration or praise, but rather for answers, and perhaps that's why his heart is in such turmoil. He doesn't know if he'll get the answers he wants so badly.

"Gov," he begins, but stops short. He starts and stops, starts and stops, and finally settles on a long sigh as he places the medal that Kray had given him on his desk. "I......I found Lio Fotia and a bunch of Mad Burnish in a cave on the outskirts of town. He said they had escaped from Freeze Force."

For a breach of national security, Kray is disturbingly undisturbed. "Nobody had informed me of such," he says as if remarking on the weather. In front of his face, his fingers remain locked. "Thank you for letting me know, but that is a separate matter from this." He gestures at the medal.

"Fotia said that you were experimenting on the Burnish." Everything comes out as one breath; letting the words out at one time doesn't make them any easier to hear hanging in the air. "Is that true, gov?"

He wants to end his words with a laugh, with a _that's ridiculous, right?_, or a _there's no way._ Kray, however, is not amused, and any words of denial that Galo himself may have had stick in the back of his throat. Finally, after the longest silence known to mankind, Kray speaks.

"Galo, I believe it's time I show you something."

Galo has never been so distraught in his life; never before had he played his poker face so well, and for so long. Kray is talking about the end of the world, about saving humanity, but all he sees are human combustion engines, perhaps sacrificing many to save many but still taking lives nonetheless. And the price, the steepest price that Kray could ever ask of him-

"_All_ the Burnish.......?" Galo looks as though he's about to add something, bitterness about to jump off of his tongue, but holds it back. "This is inhumane," he says finally.

Kray frowns. "It's what must be done, Galo. What else can we do?”

His hands curl into fists, but Galo never once raises them against the man he had once considered a father figure. Instead, he speaks slowly and resolutely, hoping to push some sense into Kray. "I'll find a way to freeze the earth's core myself. Nobody has to die."

Kray laughs softly, and Galo foolishly finds some semblance of comfort for the next few seconds. "Just what I thought you would say.....guards."

Suddenly there's a gun against the small of his back, and Galo is back on guard, staring at Kray in shock. "Gov-"

The shift in mood is immediate, Kray's face hardening into a scowl as his fist comes up and punches Galo square in the gut. "Do _not_ call me that," he growls, the warm father figure that Galo had always looked up to melting away for good. "I've always _hated_ hearing you say that. Take him away." His last words are to the guard behind him, and Galo can't even resist as he's restrained for no other reason than thinking that killing is wrong.

Although his suspicions are confirmed, Galo can't feel smug satisfaction at the metal cuffs that are secured around his wrist. Instead, it's dread, the realization that maybe everything he's ever done has been for naught and he's just living a pipe dream clogged by dead hopes and ashes. "You really didn't know anything." His voice is low enough for Kray to hear it but not quite understand the words, and so he’s only spared a single contemptuous glance as he’s escorted away.

Although he said that it's useless to try, Galo wonders if Kray really believes that using the Burnish is the only way. After all, that look alone feels as though it could freeze the entire world.

* * *

In the middle of the desert, the world turns to ice. Lio doesn't know when, how or even why, but one moment he's letting his eyes rest after spending thirty straight hours keeping the Burnish safe, and the next the settlement is yelling and screaming and _Freeze Force is here-_

Meis and Gueira immediately answer an unvoiced call to arms, and Lio follows them despite their every order for him to stay behind. _Them, _ordering _him_ around- he understands their intentions, but it's no time to be playing back line commander.

However, there’s little he can do but watch as his comrades are taken to the ice, played like a fiddle by the men he had once played himself. Perhaps he was a fool to think that the Burnish were smart enough to escape, perhaps he was an idiot to think that they could live normally.....

A shard of ice lodged in his heart multiplies into a million, and he’s struck down by Freeze Force before his own guilt can do it instead. He can’t hear much, crystals creeping over his ear drums just as much as they cluster all over his body, but he can hear _enough._ New weapon, corralling the Burnish, it was all their plan, and he can only watch helplessly as he leads his people - _his people?_ \- to their doom.

However, Mad Burnish has other plans. Gueira and Meis refuse to back down, standing in front of him protectively and summoning their flames over each other to protect both themselves and Lio. No, not just flames- darkness begins to coil around Lio, and while he doesn’t quite understand what they’re doing, he can feel their fiery intent stronger than any ice running in his veins.

"No-!" They know, they _know_ but they've still prioritized him over them- Lio feels the metal form around him, protecting him from Freeze Force attack.

Meis is the one who looks back, even as Gueira continues to focus on their wall of fire. Despite the frost in Lio’s ears, his words are crisp and clear. "As long as you're still burning, boss, Mad Burnish won't go out!"

But he's _not_ burning, and he wants to scream at him to stop saying such stupid things and to take care of themselves, but fear holds him back. Even as the cannon fires, even as he watches his allies' flames turn to ice and their bodies respond in kind, no words form from his lips except pleas and apologies.

He cries as he's shot into the sky, leaving behind his best friends and comrades to fall to Freeze Force by themselves. He hates it. He doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve their love, or their pity, or any of their ten million sacrifices.

Lio falls into flames, and the world turns into ice.

* * *

For a week, Galo Thymos sits in silence. For a week, Lio Fotia lays in ice. For one single week, the world stands still for those who are used to always moving. No, the world continues to move; it's the two who are completely still. Left to wallow in their own thoughts and dreams, left to ask why life had taken so much, left to wait because there's nothing else to be done.

They're left, fire in fire and ice in ice, until one day, the world explodes.

* * *

Pain. Ice. Synonyms to the beasts that lay within the volcano, one frozen in ice and the other desperately trying to free it from certain death. Trails of fire in draconic form converge on the rapidly growing ice formation, screaming in agony that only a Burnish would understand.

Dragons multiply, fighting against the ice that continues to grow and threaten to overtake the monsters in the volcano. It's instinct that drives them to pursue freedom for its comrade left in the glacier, instinct that lets them accept their fate as they fizzle out in the futile struggle against humanity's coldest weapon.

But slowly, slowly, it begins to crack, the trapped monster fighting from inside just as its allies fight on the outside. Harder, stronger, the dragon fights back, and finally, the ice shatters like glass, reflecting all the pain that the fire has endured so far to keep the child in its grasp safe.

The dragon within opens its eyes, but all it sees are ashes and puddles, the only remains of a fight between its partner and the cage holding it inside. Absolute fire versus absolute zero has left absolutely nothing remaining, and a low whine echoes throughout the cavern, only to stop as flames lick at the other being trapped in the ice. The boy, _its_ boy......flames can only recognize so much emotion, but this boy makes it burn brighter than before, reacting to stimuli that have been so long gone but still continue to drive the beast to protect this child, and it glows.

The pain of a lost partner realized, the dragonfire cradles the only love left within its flames and seeks its revenge.

* * *

"Your last meal." The words are emotionless despite being delivered by somebody close to him; although he had never met Heris before the incident last week, he had felt from Aina the love that the sisters shared, and had assumed they would be the same. He couldn't have been more wrong, and he only stares up at her as she rests the tray in front of him, the only sound the click of the plastic against the floor. "Please, eat up."

It's pointless if he's just going to die tomorrow anyways, and so he ignores it. Instead, he speaks, words aimed for her heart and uncaring if they hurt just a little. "Aina loves you," he says. "But does she even know you're doing this?" He doesn't need an answer that he already knows, and so he only searches for her reaction.

She flinches and looks away, as anybody would. "You don't understand," she says softly, refusing to look away; her convictions are strong, in that regard. "I would do anything to protect my little sister. _Anything._ You have nobody like that."

The words strike a fire in Galo's eyes, and Heris knows that she's struck a weak spot that she refuses to regret. Galo wants to scream, to demand that she tell him who, exactly, is responsible for that, but he's not so far gone yet, and instead continues to stare at her, his soul boiling terrifyingly close to its boiling point.

Somewhere outside, a scream is heard, a distinctly inhuman screech that echoes down the hall, followed by several explosions. “What the hell is that-?!”

Shouts fill the corridor, and Heris flinches, reining her panic in behind her thick lenses. It's obvious that the guards meant to protect her have abandoned their post, but for what is anyone's guess; anyways, her main priority is the man in front of her.

However, _her main priority_ doesn’t seem to agree, and his eyes trail back to her only after looking out of the cell window. "Get out of the way." Galo looks Heris dead in the eye, and she steps back, suddenly unsure of all the good things Aina had ever said about him. Even though he's still seated firmly on the ground, she feels as though he's looming over her threateningly. "If you know what's good for you, _get out of the way._"

The look in his eyes is a terrifyingly close-to-literal representation of his _burning firefighter soul_, but she can't help but challenge him, despite every alarm going off in her head. "I thought.....I thought you would never hurt an unarmed person."

He's silent for a moment, before replying slowly. "I wouldn't." However, his words are only secondary to the burning cold color bleeding into his arms, turning the sweat on his palms into steam as realization crosses her mind just a bit too late. "And neither would the Burnish."

Galo's cell turns into a star.

* * *

Remnants of one dragon still left cold in the crater of Fennel Volcano, its lonely partner rampages through Promepolis, a scared soul cradled delicately within its heart. Blue and white flames pulse softly around Lio, but they do nothing to protect the other innocents of the city, destroying whatever they see fit to in their search for the man who nearly killed him. The monsters circle buildings, crushing and sparing in equal measure, but still Lio sleeps. It's not his will that drives it, even if he is the mortal engine that the flames rely on to drive its desire for revenge. An explosion catches the dragon's attention, but only for a split second before it continues its search for Kray Foresight.

From the wreckage of his once-prison, Galo watches the dragon writhe in agony, his own heart resonating with it. Heris has gone somewhere- she's safe, Galo knows that if he knows his own flames at all, but he's not particularly sure where. It doesn't matter, though, since the only thing keeping Galo's focus at the moment is the fire rampaging through the city. It's a Burnish flare, it _has _to be, but whose-? Lio's? There's a speck of a figure, floating serenely in the middle of the dragon's head of flames, and Galo can only assume.

He can feel negative emotions course through the heat in the air. Everything hurts, the desire to burn overwhelmed by a heart wrenching pain that Galo knows can only be coming from one entity. "It's.....crying......" Not a question, but a statement. The flames call to him, demanding that he consume and combust and destroy everything in its path in a sorrowful rage, but he's barely held back by the composition hammered into him from spending years containing his flames within his heart.

His hands ball up into fists, and he makes a choice that he's never made before. Between him and Lio, there's only one answer to the dragon's cry.

Galo burns.

* * *

Despite their best efforts, even Burning Rescue can't put out an entire city's worth of dragonfire. "Focus on sectors with the most damage and stick together," Ignis barks into his intercom, earning a chorus of acknowledgement from the others. It's not the best tactic, but one person by themselves won't make a difference to a city burning to the ground. And while targeting the dragon is the best way to clear the flames, Freeze Force is being easily subdued; there's not much that a non-combative rescue force could do against _that_ kind of firepower.

As Ignis's patrol car vehicle veers around the corner to guide the larger emergency truck and aerial transporter, a black bike - unfamiliar in design but more than obviously carrying a Burnish rider - pulls up next to it, and Ignis instinctively reaches for his pistol, waiting for it to make a move. It......doesn't. Not at first. The rider just looks at Ignis once, twice, three times before pulling ahead ever so slightly. Ignis responds in turn by slowing down; he doesn't know what in the fresh hell is going on, but he can sense hesitation and urgency from the Burnish at the same time. "Boss," Varys's voice echoes over the intercom, "do you want us to-"

"No," he says firmly despite his own reservations. "Just stay on call. This hasn't gone south.....yet."

The Burnish vehicle pulls out in front of them and skids to a stop, forcing Ignis to do the same with the patrol car and pull out his ice pistol. However, the voice behind the mask makes him jolt and lower his weapon ever so slightly. "Don't shoot, boss! Please!"

"Galo-?"

"Where?!" Lucia's high pitched yell echoes across the intercom HUD, causing Ignis to flinch. Not many things can faze him, but her voice is one. "Wait, don't tell me-"

Nobody cuts Lucia off; her silence is completely of her own accord, as is everyone else's. They're all too busy watching the Burnish in front of them as the black charred helmet folds in on itself to reveal familiar blue hair and eyes. "Boss," he says in a hurry, even though he doesn't move to approach the vehicle as he speaks. "I don't have time to explain, I just- I need the matoi tech. I need to get up there."

Ignis is silent for a moment, before he glares at Galo from behind his shades, causing him to flinch. "Then what are you doing over _there?_ Get into the truck and make it fast, Galo."

As soon as Ignis's words carry out through the intercom, the top hatch on the truck swings open, inviting Galo in. Suddenly, he's not serious but nervous, hesitation etched clearly on his face. "Galo," Remi says impatiently from the hatch, his head poking out to glare at him, "the longer you sit there, the more.....shit.....that dragon sets on fire. Please make up your mind."

"You still trust me?" He looks at both Ignis in the patrol car and the truck holding everyone else, his usually goofy nature completely gone and replaced with shock and the tiniest hint of wetness in his eyes. "I-I was expecting this to be a lot harder, actually."

Aina speaks almost immediately, huffing at him from inside her transporter. "I've never trusted you to begin with." His expression drops, but picks back up as she continues. "You're so stupid, irrational and _completely_ hardheaded that I wouldn't even trust you with your own life. But you're still a member of Burning Rescue, so do I really have a choice?"

"You haven't blown up any of my inventions yet," Lucia adds helpfully, even if it's followed by a low, salty mutter of, "came damn close a couple times, though."

Remi clears his throat, interrupting whatever snappy remark Galo is about to throw at her. "You know how we feel about the Burnish, Galo. You're not an exception."

_How we feel about Burnish._ The words seem to strike a chord in him, and he nods in reply, jumping up over the patrol car to vault into the truck. "You're right," he says finally. "Sorry for doubting you guys. I just......y'know."

There's no need to explain; they _do_ know. Remi opens his mouth to apologize - for calling him an idiot, for his words at the pizza parlor, for _anything_ \- but stops short and just nods. "The world doesn't understand, but that doesn't mean we don't. Idiot."

Galo grins and shoots him a thumbs up in response. "The one time I'm glad to be the idiot, huh?"

As he leans against the wall of the truck, still in half-Burnish form, Varys is the one to ask what everybody's thinking. "If you wanna go after the Burnish, why don'tcha just go in that Burnish gear?"

The rest of Galo's Burnish form falls back into itself at the question, flames dissipating into the wind and ashes scattering to hide the rider he was before. "I can't go up there like _that,_" he says finally as Lucia calibrates his mech for him. "Not when Kray's up there, too." The realization from before has framed the entire situation completely differently, and he can't help but recoil at the thought of Kray finding out about his mutation; enemy as he is, Galo still wants to believe in Kray, believe in changing him. Becoming even more unlike his hero, turning into the type of person that Kray hates more than he hates Galo himself......no. He refuses to think about it.

"Good luck, Galo," Lucia says finally, signaling that the Matoi monstrosity is up and operational. "If you don't come back in one piece, me and my inventions are never forgiving you."

"Right," he replies with a laugh, sliding into the mech with ease, not once betraying the team's newfound discovery that it was meant to subdue people like him. "Don't worry, my burning firefighter soul won't go out so easily." 

After all, if it does, he doesn't know if there'll be anything left _to_ forgive.

* * *

Hundreds of feet above the city, a dragon faces off with a monster. The monster barely reaches past six feet, but Kray Foresight has done more to blacken his own heart than any Burnish. "Come at me," he calls, and one hand reaches out to level off against the serpent made of rage and flames incarnate-

-only to be interrupted by a large shadow eclipsing him and hiding the Burnish inside the dragon from view. "Not today," Galo says through gritted teeth, even as the dragon rears its head, trying to get him and his mech away from the head that houses Lio. He tears into the fire, mechanical hands working through the raging beast before touching warm - but not burning - skin. "Stop this," he shouts, "this isn't what Mad Burnish is about, is it? _You don't want this at all!_"

The dragon keens softly as Lio's eyes flutter half-open. "What-" There's a shift in energy, one where energy seems to seep from the dragon into Lio, until suddenly it disappears in bursts of pink and blue, leaving Lio in midair, supported by nothing but gravity. "What-?" His next exclamation is less confusion and more shock, even as Galo grabs him and pulls him away from the tower, away from Kray. "What happened, where did-"

"Watch out, you're coming in hot!" A voice unfamiliar to Lio echoes close to his ear, and he realizes a bit too late that the sound has come from Galo's Matoi as he's thrown into the back of an aerial vehicle the same shade of red as the rest of Burning Rescue's arsenal. Unfortunately, that's all the detail he's able to notice before being slammed into the transporter with Galo's mecha providing even greater force against him.

Lio's eyes snap open from the impact of his head against the transporter wall, anger roiling in their depths as he takes in the coldness of the vehicle. The _coldness_. The lack of _warmth._ "What did you do-?!" Panic courses through his body, and he retaliates, kicking and screaming at Galo despite the other having the upper hand with his Matoi tech. His flames are completely gone, eliciting two completely different emotions- suspicious confusion from Galo, and pure terror from Lio. Being without flames- two of the only things keeping him anchored to earth, snuffed out- "Let go of me! I'll kill you!"

He doesn't; in fact, Galo's grip on him only grows tighter, trying to get him to calm down. This causes Lio to squirm harder, but the movement causes the transporter to lurch around heavily, and the woman piloting it lets out an irritated shout before opening the hatch- and sending both Lio and Galo falling to the ice below.

The fall would killed Lio easily, but he clings to Galo's Matoi, the air burning around them and melting whatever ice they would have slammed against. Instead, they both find themselves on top of a structure in the middle of nowhere, a building that shouldn’t exist in an ice lake that shouldn’t be physically possible.

And accompanying them, a hologram that shouldn’t be as trustworthy as they immediately take it for.

"Come with me," he says, and both men look at each other, every emotion from their fight cloistered once more behind eyes that don’t betray anything, before following the hologram without another word. The only way they see going back to Promepolis is death, after all; any other chance is worth running towards.

* * *

The hologram, a man who introduces himself as the late Deus Prometh, runs them through the truth, about Kray and about the Promare. Although it pertains to Galo, he still has the audacity to fall asleep in the middle of the lecture. Sentient aliens, the world exploding.....really, his head's going to explode before any planet at this rate.

Still, he gets the gist of it; pilot the mech, save the world? It's really nothing different from his normal modus operandi, and he has no problem quickly agreeing to pilot the Deus X Machina as soon as Deus requests it.

However, Lio doesn't seem to be of the same mindset as he begins to formulate objections, eyeing the prometech engine guiltily. "I'm not-" he shrinks away at Aina and Galo's sudden looks at him, and bites his bottom lip before continuing with conviction. "I'm not a Burnish. After what happened in Promepolis, the flames- the promare left me. They weren't mine."

Aina blinks in shock, but Galo doesn't seem nearly as surprised. He's had a suspicion, considering how he had never even _seen_ Lio in a Burnish form, but for it to be confirmed now.....it's really not a moment too soon. "Whose.....?"

"My parents'." He doesn't say any further, but Galo can imagine the circumstances. Mad Burnish's leader, a regular human barely Galo's own age. Fragments of promare left to a kid whose parents are no longer of the earth. Even an idiot can connect the dots; Galo's just more upset that he hadn't before. The dragon that he had challenged in Promepolis....between the two of them, Galo feels like the monster. “So I can’t fuel the Deus X Machina. I’m sorry, professor.”

Trying to shake off the somberness and guilt draped over them from Lio’s admission, Galo grins, resting his hands behind his head in a pose far too lackadaisical for the end of the world. "That's fine, though. We only need a Burnish and a pilot, right?"

Realization hits Aina before Lio, knowing Galo's intentions far before the other, but it's Lio who speaks first. "You idiot, didn't you just hear me? I said I'm not a Burnish!"

Galo turns to look at him; suddenly flames are licking at Lio's chest, burning precariously close to where his heart rests, and Lio promptly falls silent.

"And _I _said that's fine. Now get in the cockpit, normie." The look on Lio's face is priceless. "What? Never seen a Burnish before? We're not that scary, I promise." He opens his mouth to reply, but Galo just plows on. "It’s not like I’d trust anyone else to power this thing besides me, anyways- it needs a little, ah, _special_ touch.”

Any shock that Lio may have had is replaced immediately by disgust. “Don’t you _dare_ turn this thing into a-”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of _my_ super-awesome Matoi Tech Redux!”

"I will _not_ be saving the world if it means putting up with your ridiculous names!"

"Well," Deus says shortly in the background, mostly to Aina because the men are still arguing between themselves like toddlers. "I got that completely wrong."

Aina sighs and rubs the growing crease on her forehead. "Yeah, no, you really did a bangup job picking the world's saviors, professor. Why them, anyways?"

"Because they landed here. It wasn't my choice, really- just luck." _Dumb_ _luck_, he doesn't say, but Aina applies the term anyways. Galo is involved.

But wait.

"If they hadn't gotten lucky.....what would humanity have done?"

Deus says nothing in reply; whether it's because the laboratory is suddenly crumbling around them and Deus's digital life support is cut for good or because the answer is _die, I guess_\- well, perhaps both are equally true.

* * *

Lio gets a crash course before they head for Promepolis, a lesson where Galo learns that he's a surprisingly quick learner. However, in the middle of flight training, he turns to Galo, eyeing the firefighter in the prometech engine. "How long did you know," he asks slowly, "that you were a Burnish? Was it after you joined Burning Rescue?" For the person who caught him to be one of the people he was trying to protect....the irony bites, but not as sharply as his curiosity.

Galo hesitates before sighing, the goofiness and devil-may-care attitude from before disappearing quickly once more. To his credit, he does know when to sober up. "I've always known," he says, looking away. "I thought Kray knew that....the day he saved me from that Burnish fire, it was from myself.” One hand moves to wrap around the opposite arm in an uncharacteristic display of anxiety. Thinking about that day.....he knows it's a very stupid, very Galo thing to do, but he's so used to thinking of the hero that he gained that day instead of everything else that he had lost. “I thought he knew that I was a Burnish. I thought he accepted me.”

“But he didn’t.” Lio doesn’t have to say it out loud, but he does anyways.

Galo shrugs. "I joined Burning Rescue for him. I wanted to prove that not all Burnish were dangerous. Guess it figures that he knew that already."

Lio is silent for a long time before replying. "It doesn't matter what he knows about Burnish," he says. "He's using them. Using......you."

"Using us." Lio's eyes snap up to meet Galo's, even as Galo looks out past him towards the Promepolis skyline. "He's using Burnish, so he's using _us."_ If living on another human's borrowed time has made Galo human, then forcing himself to suffer has surely made Lio a Burnish as well. "But we won't let him anymore, right? Save the Burnish, save the world."

Lio stares at him again, gratitude in his eyes reflecting what his voice could never say, before nodding and facing straight towards their last battlefield.

"Save the Burnish, save the world."

* * *

Fights suck. They really do, as do pieces of terraforming equipment converted into genocidal murder weapons, and somehow Kray has perfected the art of both. The Lio de Galon is tossed around like paper, or even less than paper; at least paper has maneuverability in mid-air. From punches to kicks, it takes Lio all of his newfound piloting experience and Galo's rarely-used promare power (and the Maroi spears that he keeps creating, much to Lio's chagrin) to avoid getting blasted off the face of the earth, much less landing a hit of their own on Krayzor X. It's a tough fight, and they both know that even if they somehow win, there's not a chance that they'd make it out alive.

Suddenly, the world seems to stand still for a split second, and the entire city crashes around them.

They tumble around like weightless dolls from the impact; Galo slams his head on the cockpit window and somehow they've switched places, Lio's legs splayed out awkwardly over the ledge of the engine. "Did- did we crash?" That seems to be the only explanation as to the sudden change in gravity, but even Lio isn't sure. It was all too quick to be certain.

Peeking out from the Lio de Galon, everything's a haze of smoke and fog, wreckage turning ice to mist while still adding to the black air. However, a figure stands at the other end of the point where both mechs are connected, and Lio lets out a _tsk_ of anger at the sight of Kray. "You're still alive?"

Kray smirks in a way that can only be calculated, but neither Galo nor Lio have the energy to notice as their blood boils- Lio moreso as Kray locks eyes with him. "It does seem so. It looks as though you really couldn't do anything for your comrades, hm?"

"Die, you bastard-!" Before Galo can stop him, Lio is vaulting out of the prometech engine, fist raised as he charges at Kray.

Kray snaps, and the world turns to crimson.

Galo doesn't act on rationality but on instinct, a spark of red forcing his own promare out to protect Lio and envelop him in protective fire. Even he doesn't understand why for a moment, until he connects the flame - not _his_ flame, but the threat - to Kray, and feels sick to his stomach. The fire is nothing more than a hand erupting from Kray's side, the promare serving as a proxy for his lost limb.

"You're a Burnish-?!" Lio's exclamation fades into a pained gasp as Kray squeezes him in his grip. It's not as though he really needs an answer though, not when Kray's deformation speaks for itself. And it seems as Kray's not intent on answering either, not with the way he's eyeing Lio like a prize from a catcher.

Galo curses himself for being unable to retaliate; even now, even with Lio on the line, the thought of Kray finding out.....it makes him freeze in his tracks. "Why.....?" All he can eke out is a helpless question, staring not at Kray or Lio but the space between them.

Kray scoffs, staring down at Galo like shit under his boot. "I've _always_ hated you," he barks, grip tightening on Lio as he relives every single time Galo has gotten in his way. "Ever since I '_saved_' you from my own Burnish spasm, you've been nothing but a cockroach clinging to me. Even Burning Rescue couldn't fucking kill you!"

Galo swallows thickly, the truth surfacing in cold realizations. His promare, Kray's....whatever the truth was is irrelevant, since they both converge on the same current reality. "But it doesn't matter," Kray continues, ignoring Galo in favor of Lio. "You'll fuel the Parnassus, and you-" this time he looks once more at Galo, "-will _finally fucking die._"

Galo can only watch helplessly as Kray's promare lashes out, peeling Prometh's prometech engine out of the leftover carnage of the Lio de Galon. As if adding salt to the wound, Kray flicks his wrist, and the engine slams into Galo sideways, sending him flying out of the wreckage and onto open air; the last thing he sees as he falls into the chasm between Krayzor X and the Lio de Galon are burning red wings, carrying away the only things left to save - or destroy - the world.

* * *

"Galo! Galo, wake _up!"_ The voice that rouses Galo to consciousness is Aina's, but she's not the only one standing over him. Next to her, Ignis crouches by him, face as indecipherable as always but body holding some level of tension that betrays his unease. "Galo, can you hear me?"

He shifts, rocks moving off of his body as he turns and coughs. He's still alive, that's for sure, but everything's a blur after Kray-

"Lio-!" He blurts out the name suddenly, remembering what had happened just moments prior. Panic fills him at the thought of Lio and Kray, Kray doing- doing-

_Why Lio?_

"Galo, calm down." Ignis's words bring him back to reality, but that isn't necessarily for the better as his palms start to sweat and sparks flicker at his fingertips. "Whatever happened up there, you're going to fix it. You just need to tell us first."

He tries to take a deep breath, half succeeds, and speaks. "Kray took Lio, they're.....they went down. Kray said Lio would power......the ark."

"Sounds like he's gonna use Lio for that power thing," Varys supplies; Aina looks at Galo, surprised that he says nothing, but neither does she, and so the others are left out of the truth that he _can't_ power the ark, not with promare that he doesn't have. "You think it's not too late?"

Remi looks at the screen on his HUD before turning back to him. "Galo, you can still make it, but you need to use your Burnish gear."

He blinks at them slowly, but Aina sighs and translates, using words that he wasn't able to understand before but seem to be the only things he can process at the moment. "Your promare, Galo. Use your promare."

"I wanna use the matoi tech," he says half-heartedly, trying to stay on task and not let his mind wander back into panic, but knows that it's moot; as long as he can control his promare, it's safer to use his Burnish gear as he gets closer to the prometech engine. Anyways, time is running out and they don't have time to recalibrate the Matoi before Kray does.......whatever he plans on using Lio for. Galo can't think of what, but he knows that it can't be good.

Lucia grins widely. "Well, wouldja settle for some nice upgrades to that Burnish dink instead?" He doesn't even know what dink means in this context, but Lucia gives him no time to process that much information as she unveils her latest pet project. "This baby can drill through _anything, _so I figured it'd make its debut in an emergency. I wanted to put it on your mech, buuuuuut-"

"I'll take it, Lucia. _Please." _Whether it's Matoi tech or Burnish tech, Galo doesn't actually care anymore as long as it gets him closer to Lio. "Just......give it to me. I need it." 

She nods without another word. As black armor forms around him, Lucia's weapon-instrument attaches itself to him and begins to spin. He doesn't notice the weight of it, or the way it pushes him towards the ground, making him dump up against the debris being pushed out of the way.

No, Galo can only notice how far down he has left to go, take a deep breath to steady himself for the fight ahead, and hope that it's not too late.

* * *

"Congratulations," Kray says as he watches Lio with eagle eyes, clapping condescendingly. They're settled neatly within the remains of the control center- at least, as neatly as could be when they're surrounded by rubble from the explosion and Lio is strapped into the engine with sharp, thorny vines as the Burnish he's let down look down on him. "It looks like a Burnish will save humanity after all." Lio scowls, but says nothing; he's hopefully right, but not in the way that he assumes. What Kray doesn't know can only hurt him though, and at this point, that's what Lio wants. As Kray turns on the prometech engine, Lio can only thank the heavens that he hasn't realized that the Burnish that had been fueling it wasn't him.

Above them, the bedrock blocking the way to the engine begins to shift slightly.

Stuck within the prometech pod, Lio doesn't even attempt to escape. Kray is too strong, and he has nowhere to go even if he were able to break free from the engine. Instead, his strength focuses solely on protecting the small flame nestled in his palm as the engine tries to consume it, the only thing that has protected him thus far from everything that Kray has done to him.

It's the promare, but it's just as much Galo himself.

Despite the gravity against him, despite the blood curdling within his veins as he’s sucked dry of every single promare that his own body doesn’t even _have_, Lio's fingers refuse to uncurl, not even a hint of blue flare escaping his grasp. He doesn't want to give up Galo, not when he's already given up his mom and dad and every other Burnish who has foolishly protected a normal human like him this whole time. As long as he can keep Galo's flame alive, as long as he can stall Kray with futile hopes.......

Above the sound of Lio’s own heart in his ears, the ceiling thuds dully.

Eventually, he can feel the engine's core slow down, Kray's impatience overtaking his desire to pull the stubbornness out of Lio's very body. The engine refuses to run, and Kray stares at Lio in anger as the boy just stares smugly back, windswept and dazed but not nearly as ashy or affected as the other Burnish in their own cells. "But you- what about your promare?"

The ceiling shakes louder.

"Sorry." Lio spits down at Kray's feet; he would have been more daring and aimed for his face, but he's still strapped into the engine. "I'm just the pilot, Foresight."

The glass of the engine room begins to creak uncontrollably, and Kray finally looks up to find the source- just to be met with the sound of glass shattering and an orange-clad knee straight to his nose. "Don't you touch my fucking pilot, Kray!"

Kray stumbles back from the engine, cursing at his possibly-broken nose and giving Galo just enough time to pull Lio out of the engine; Lio collapses to the ground shortly after, but Kray cares not for him anymore, not after his pitiful display in the engine. No, he's once more focused on Galo. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?"

"I don't," Galo agrees unflinchingly, staring him down with a resolution that only Lio could have instilled in him. "But that just means that I always end up winning. I'm tired of you trampling all over the Burnish, so now I'm here to put out _your_ flame, with my_ own_."

Kray seems to both understand and deny at the same time. "What are you-"

He's interrupted by a fist straight to his gut this time, a near perfect one-for-one for the first time he had ever laid his own hands on Galo. The only difference is the blue flaring from his closed palm, lighting up realization and anger in Kray's eyes. It lights up more than that too, as Galo once more flares to life and lunges forward to try and subdue the man who had once been his hero.

Despite his best intentions, though, the world doesn't work in perfect certainties.

"You-" Kray manages to push Galo off of him, and yells wordlessly in rage as he shoves the firefighter face first into the prometech. "If you want to be the hero so much, then _you_ can be humanity's fucking battery!" Lio can only watch helplessly from the ground as the engine switches on automatically and Galo screams in agony from the force of his promare being ignited inside him. If it feels as painful as it looks, then it's a miracle Galo is still standing at all.

However, Galo isn't strapped in, not like Lio was, and they all know that Galo is nothing if not a _fighter. _Fueled by the pain - his pain, the Burnish's pain, the promare's pain - he grits his teeth ("grin and bear it," the words echo through Lio's mind as a reminder of Galo's own mindless tenacity) and slams his hands against the wall of the engine- before spinning around and slamming his forehead against Kray's. It feels like hours that their heads stay connected, before Kray stumbles backwards and falls to the ground, the first to back down from the impact.

Only when Kray is knocked back, properly down for the count, and Galo is standing upright to step out of the prometech engine, swaying precariously with each step, does Lio notice how much of him is turning grey- and how much of that grey is disappearing into the air. One of his hands grasps the opposite forearm before holding onto air where flesh once was. "Galo, you-"

He cuts himself off as Galo turns towards him, gives him a weak thumbs up with his only remaining hand and immediately collapses; Lio barely has enough time or energy to catch him before his head hits the sharp metal jutting from the ground. Despite the lack of movement from Galo’s chest, Lio can still feel the faint puffs of air from his lips. They’re shallow, but at the very least they still exist. “Galo, you have to wake up.” There’s no answer save for the occasional breath, quickly falling in frequency. “Galo Thymos, come _on_. You can’t die here......”

Even as he speaks, as he tries to search for any way to help, disorientation wraps around him, the engine room juxtaposed with visions of a cave and ash and smoke and- _no. Not this time, I won’t let it end like that this time._

Lio knows full well that no human can help a Burnish when they're too far gone. He _knows_, but this time he refuses to _believe._

"You have to live......you promised, you absolute idiot."

Galo is completely still in his arms, and Lio makes a decision before he regrets not making it. He might only be human, but he's been given a third second chance, and it's not fair for him to hoard it when he's not the one who deserves it.

Taking Galo's promare into his mouth, he presses his palms against Galo's cheeks and _breathes_. Lio breathes into him like he wants to run out of air, lips pressed together resolutely without care of the repercussions. Whether it's love, desperation or something else entirely, he doesn't let himself part until the flame on his tongue has run cold and the fire coursing in his veins has been pushed entirely into the Burnish who needs it. He pushes his life into Galo until he feels as though he has no more life to give, and then pushes some more before finally breaking away with a gasp. When he finally catches himself, breathing heavily, his eyes turn once more, hopefully, to Galo.

Ashes dance amidst embers, heartbeats count the seconds in which nothing happens, Lio's head drops, forehead pressed against an unmoving chest......and then a voice breaks the silence.

"Lio......?" His head snaps back up to look at Galo; his eyes are still closed, but they slowly begin scrunching together, visual proof of energy that had once vacated the boisterous man. "Lio, the fuck just happened....? I feel......augh."

“Eloquent,” Lio says drily, his words the exact opposite of the wetness making themselves known on his cheeks. “How are you feeling? You almost died, you know.”

"Yeah, I know. Happens a lot.” Galo’s eyes open slowly, looking up at Lio before he sits up from his grasp. He’s not perfectly healed, the flames returning his body but not completely repairing it. Still, though, it’s far better than the corpse he almost ended up as. “Dunno how I feel, though. I want to burn." Galo frowns deeply, and his next words put Lio on high alert. "No, _they _want to burn. When Kray threw me in the freak machine, I could hear them.....all of them. They want to absolutely destroy everything. I think.....the promare want to burn out. That’s why they keep asking for _more_."

Ideas formulate in Lio's mind, his eyes widening at the realization. All of the promare, burning at one time.....maybe Galo being an idiot isn’t such a bad thing after all. "If they want to burn out, then....let's give them what they want."

"Lio, what do you-" 

"Everyone listen to me!" Lio's voice echoes through the chamber as he ignores Galo and instead stares up at the Burnish. He doesn't have the right to ask things of them, not when he's the reason they're on their last legs, but if it saves them - saves _Galo _\- then he'd ask of them anything. "Please lend Galo your strength one last time! We only have one chance to make this right!"

In all honesty, Lio is expecting a fight, but the silence that follows is even worse. It's not refusal but avoidance, the certain fact that nobody wants to say yes, but likewise nobody is able to say no. It’s heartbreaking, but he knows he only has one person to blame.

“You’ve got it, boss!” Just when Lio has finally put his hand down and lost faith in not the Burnish but himself, Meis's voice echoes loudly throughout the space. Lio can't see him, but his head whips up all the same to find where his right hand man is. "This is our home too, right? Let's burn this place to a crisp!"

Murmurs ripple through the chamber, still quiet but loud enough to be heard from the ruins of the engine. "Hell yeah! You better be ready for the blaze of a lifetime, fireman! We’ll blow this planet pop stand!" This time, it's Gueira, and the agreements grow stronger as his sharp voice cuts through the low thrum of energy between the Burnish above. "For Lio! For Mad Burnish!"

"For Mad Burnish!" The voices rise as one, as do the blue flares emanating from each capsule before converging on Galo in the center of the ark.

Lio breathes out a ragged sigh of relief before looking at Galo seriously. "You heard that, right? We're going to destroy this world. Try your best to stop us, if you can."

Galo looks back at Lio in understanding, an indecipherable emotion - close, but not quite equivalent, to gratitude - in his eyes, before grinning widely. "Well I can't let you guys do that, can I? It's my job to put out fires, y’know.”

Lio can’t help but snort softly. “Is that it? Just putting out fires? What a weak ambition for a so-called hero.”

“No, you’re right.” Galo laughs as the area around them flares to life, standing up and pulling Lio into the prometech engine. If his words meant the difference between life and death, then he needed to be nothing but truthful. "I want to save the world.”

Lio grins in response. "And I want to burn it."

“Well then.” Galo’s hand squeezes Lio’s, even as the promare sync with Lio through the only catalyst close enough to him - physically, spiritually, emotionally - to properly conduct his deepest desire. Galo says nothing more, but the flaming lifeforms around them whisper it well enough through the electromagnetic waves, beginning the end and bringing the end back to the beginning.

* * *

_“What are you waiting for?”_

* * *

The world erupts into a blue and green event horizon, promare lighting up every star in the sky as a means to sate their hunger. If Lio’s wish had been to devour the earth, then it surely doesn’t show; beyond the known reaches of their galaxies, he can feel the flames dancing around him reach for space that it has never known, fuel that fire has never consumed.

But likewise, the pulsing heart next to him refuses to back down, a deep desire to save home echoing alongside Lio’s- however big that home may be. Where orange touches, blue heals, creating a delicate dance between the hunger and its food moving in tandem.

The Galo de Lion - Lio’s own name for the behemoth - sparks with the life of three, humans and promare and the in-between all burning brightly for the sake of the world. As the brightest of the flares withdraw, tired out from their great Combustion, the rest burn to completion, waiting until the last of the threat disappears before also taking its leave. In the end, no fires remain, nothing to heal or harm, and the weightlessness of the promare no longer supports the Galo de Lion, sending it falling down to Earth, the robot falling from the sky like a shooting star the only proof that the Burnish are gone for good.

And as it falls, in the long minutes between the stratosphere and the earth’s surface, Lio and Galo laugh and cry and think about everything that’s happened in the past few days, the heat of terminal reentry cradling them like the promare that had once called the world home.

* * *

"There're no Burnish anymore," Lio says tiredly two days later, looking out at the city from where he sits on the remains of Galo de Lion’s left leg; despite the damage that it has accrued, Promepolis is still surprisingly clean for a megalopolis that had to endure both a dragon attack _and_ a giant robot fight in the same day. "You're just.....human now. It's not _us and them_ anymore."

"It shouldn't have been in the first place," Galo replies, but laughs shortly afterward. If his arm weren’t currently on paid leave, it would be rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "But you’re right, it’s over. And we have a lot of work to do."

Lio raises an eyebrow questioningly. "We?"

"Damn straight! it's your fault the Lio de Galon caused so much damage, Mister First-Time Pilot."

"You were the one making those stupid spears, idiot!"

"Yeah, well I won't be doing that for a while now, huh?" The banter dies out a bit too quickly at the somber reminder, and the two lapse back into silence, staring out towards Promepolis.

"Papier-mache," Lio says finally, earning a surprised look from Galo. "I'll make you one of those Matoi things, but I do hope you like soggy newspaper. I can’t take any chances with such a scary ex-Burnish."

"C'mon, it's not like I'd have burnt it or anything, even if I still was. Plus....." Galo looks down at Lio, the one who had sided with the victims despite having every right to turn towards the people who would gladly accept him, and grins cheekily. "I'm like you, now."

And Lio looks back up at Galo, the one who had almost killed himself to save the humans who had hated Burnish until the very end, and breathes out.

"You always have been."

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title: hi my name is kiril and i really just keep fucking myself up, the autobiography
> 
> Can we talk about BRFD accepting Galo being a Burnish when Kray couldn't? I wanna talk about that.
> 
> On the other hand, I do think that I wrote Lio as having too passive an effect on the plot, but maybe someday I'll revisit this with fresher eyes and make his character arc stronger. For now, though, I've been working on this for a whole ass week and it's _obvious_ the parts where I just straight up got tired of writing this.


End file.
